Recycling boxed out

By Ted PetersenCorrespondent

Thursday

Dec 25, 2008 at 12:01 AM

County puts in place a long-term project to collect compost that would include paper waste.

Freddie Wehbe, owner of Gator Domino's, sold almost 30,000 boxes of pizza, cheese bread and chicken wings during the SEC Championship game on Dec. 2. And none of those boxes were recycled.The Alachua County Public Works department accepts a lot of items for recycling - from plastic soda bottles and aluminum cans to newspapers, magazines, office paper, even junk mail. But pizza boxes and pasteboard, the cardboard used for beverage containers and cereal boxes, are not recyclable, at least for the time being.Alachua County has a long-term project to begin collecting compost, which would include food and paper waste such as pizza and pasteboard boxes.Karen Deeter, assistant public works director for Alachua County, said she hopes that within three years, Alachua County residents can put compost waste into a separate bin to be collected with their recyclables.San Francisco already has implemented a successful citywide composting program. Food scraps, meat, bones, coffee grounds, paper napkins and cheesy pizza boxes are recycled. Alachua County is learning from that program to implement its own.Wehbe concedes that the lack of local recycling of pizza boxes is "very frustrating to me."Deeter says "pizza boxes have never been included in recycling" in Gainesville.Still, many residents are unaware that greasy pizza boxes are not recyclable - so they put their boxes at curbside, only to find them left at the curb, along with a notice explaining why they were left.Mary Ulseth, waste collection program coordinator for Alachua County, said pizza boxes are "one of the larger contaminants in cardboard."The cheese and grease from the pizza contaminates the cardboard, making it unsuitable for the process at the recycling mills.

Milton Towns, the waste collections manager for Alachua County, said the contaminated boxes could be recycled, but the processor either can't sell that product or must sell it at a lower price. It is easier for the processor to ask Alachua County and the city of Gainesville to not collect contaminated boxes.Deeter said conscientious citizens have two options with their pizza boxes. People can cut off and throw away the parts of the box contaminated with food, and only recycle the "clean" cardboard. Homeowners also could start their own backyardcomposting heap and return the paper to the earth.The problem with recycling pasteboard is that the cardboard used in beverage and cereal boxes has been recycled over and over again. Deeter said each time the paper is recycled, the fibers get shorter. Over time, the cardboard is unusable.Wehbe said he wants Gator Domino's to be part of the solution, even if it raises his costs. He said he hopes to use wax or parchment paper as a liner to protect the cardboard from contamination. In the past, the Domino's franchise has incurred costs to reduce waste, he said. Domino's boxes have no front corners, significantly reducing the amount of cardboard in each box.Deeter said there are a number of complicating factors for recycling in Alachua County. Recycling can be difficult for Gainesville's large population of apartment renters.Depending on the apartment complex, recycling bins are sometimes in inconvenient locations, reducing the likelihood of recycling, Deeter said. Apartments usually have limited space indoors and often no space outdoors for storing recyclables. The result is that many recyclables end up in landfills.Also, the economic downturn has affected the paper industry, which has reduced the demand for paper products to be recycled. Deter said much of the cardboard fiber in America was shipped to China, turned into boxes and sent back with a product inside.The economic downturn has slowed American imports, thus lowering the demand for recycled cardboard.Deter said recycling mills are even less likely to accept contaminated cardboard with the lowered demand."Recycling markets are cyclical," Deeter said.

Sally Palmi, the waste alternatives manager for Alachua County, is working on a project that will provide apartment renters with special bags to store and carry recyclables - bags that have one pocket for newspapers and magazines and another for cans, bottles and plastics.For now, Palmi said the best thing to do after eating a pizza is to crush the empty box and beverage containers to reduce the amount of space they take up in the garbage bag - and the landfills.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.